Fox Screws XETV, Takes Affilliation to KSWB (April 1, 2008)

Fox has gone from a fledling low-rated network launched 21 years ago when it premiered with a two show slate on April 5, 1987: Married...With Children and The Tracey Ullman Show, repeated three times from 7-10pm so viewers could sample them. Good choice of shows to premiere. The first has gone on to classic sitcom status, and the second is featured on Showtime specials every now and then, as well as launching The Simpsons, which started out on the April 19th edition of Tracey Ullman, got spun off into a weekly series in 1990, and has been running ever since.

What finally made Fox into a real contender? Think of the NFL. They grabbed the NFL rights for the AFC games in 1993 from CBS and broadcasted their first NFL games beginning with the 1994-95 NFL season.

Fox also had popular shows such as Family Guy, In Living Color, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, American Idol, 24, House, King of the Hill, and Futurama, which they should have never cancelled as the writers for Futurama mocked Fox in the Comedy Central movie last week.

Fox also has the Major League Baseball Saturday game of the week, a revival of the feature that NBC used to have in the 60s through the 80s. Fox also has the All Star Game, half of the playoffs (they get the NLCS this year), and the World Series.

Fox has the NFC games, the playoffs, the NFC Championship Game, and the Super Bowl in 2008 and 2011.

Fox has the Bowl Championship Series that includes the Fiesta, Orange, Sugar, and Cotton bowls, plus the BCS national championshop game.

Fox has NASCAR from February through May, plus the Daytona 500.

What made Fox a perfect fit for XETV was that XETV is a VHF analog signal that is Mexican licensed and not scheduled to have its analong signal shut off until after 2020. XETV is owned by Grupo Televisa and is programmed by Bay City Television in Kearny Mesa.

After all these years, why are the boneheads at Fox pulling their network from Fox and putting it on KSWB, a UHF signal that's on channel 69, the highest spot on the dial? For starters, Fox reasons that there are differences between our FCC and Mexico's SCT as a reason, but they failed to name the differences in the newspaper articles.

XETV channel 6's audio can be picked up on 87.7 MHz (actually 87.75 MHz). Though in mono on the FM receivers, commuters in the morning can listen to XETV's news (I'll have to quit using Fox 6 News since they're losing the affilliation) on their way to work and back, but due to its distant signal with its transmitter in Tijuana, North County commuters have a hard time listening to the audio.

Fox probably reasons that they're moving Fox to KSWB is because, for starters, XETV is impacted severely by the strong 22kw KSDS 88.3 transmitter in Mesa College, preventing many people from receiving XETV clearly, and in some cases, not at all. I was at work where it's one mile from the KSDS transmitter, and we had to watch the video for the Super Bowl on XEWT, a Televisa station, in Spanish because XETV just wouldn't come in. KSDS was killing XETV's signal in Kearny Mesa.

Another reason? Some viewers in North County can get KSWB better than XETV, but remember that XETV is VHF on 82-88 MHz, while San Diego's KSWB is UHF on 800-806 MHz. But wait! There's more! XETV is broadcasting a digital signal on channel 23, while KSWB is broadcasting a digital signal on channel 19, plus, the analog channel 69 is scheduled to go off the air on February 17, 2009, leaving KSWB with only the digital channel 19 as their new location for their channel. XETV is goverened by Mexico's rules, and they don't have to turn off their analog signal when the U.S. stations do, but that may change in Congress, where a bill may allow the border U.S. TV stations to continue in analog for five more years.

KSWB has not much guts of its own. A CW affilliate, it programs mostly fare to women 18-34 from 8-10pm with programming more narrower than the old WB network did (it was a former WB affilliate), it's losing the popular WWE Smackdown show becuase the CW didn't want it anymore, and it's moving to My Network TV in the fall (XDTV is the My Network Affilliate, which was a former UPN affilliate.) WWE was on UPN until the network folded with the WB into the CW in 2006.

KSWB has the Clippers games. Big deal. Their local news is outsourced to KTLA in Los Angeles in the morning and, yes this is true, KNSD 7/39 in the late evening. I'm not kidding.

Ray Schonbak was named the Vice President and General Manager of KSWB and wants to beef up KSWB with four hours of locally produced news, plus a three-hour morning show.

XETV was launched in 1953, celebrating 25 years in 1978, and 50 in 2003. XETV started out as an Independent. KFMB channel 8 was carrying some of the CBS, NBC, and ABC programs until KOGO (now KGTV) became an NBC affilliate in one year, and XETV became an ABC affilliate in 1956. In the late 60s and early 70s, a third San Diego TV station, KCST (now KNSD) challenged XETV on the ABC affilliation, and the FCC agreed that the ABC affilliation can't be beamed back into San Diego from a Mexican TV station under the restrictive rules in that era, so in 1973 on July 1st, I had to switch from watching The Brady Bunch and Bullwinkle from channel 6 to channel 39, or cable 3.

Not many people could pick up channel 39's comparatively weak UHF signal especially in North County. KCST boosted its power to 5,000,000 watts in 1975 and added a translator on channel 62 in La Jolla.

XETV was an independent once again relying on reruns and a nightly movie. It had the 10pm news for a short while in the late 70s.

In 1986, XETV was one of the first stations to carry Fox programming, but Fox started with a late night show The Joan Rivers Show. It's said prime-time lineup began in 1987.

In 1994, KUSI challenged XETV because Fox was beginning to carry live NFL games in the fall of 1994, but due to the NAFTA act, the FCC said that XETV was allowed to broadcast Fox live from Mexico back into the United States. KUSI challenged XETV again in 1995, but by that time, KUSI was a charter UPN affilliate, but they couldn't get the Fox affilliation from XETV.

Meanwhile in July of 1977, ABC wanted a VHF affilliate back, so they got KGTV to take the then popular ABC network affilliation, and KGTV handed the NBC affilliation to KCST, and by that time, NBC's ratings were in the tank. ABC wasn't happy that their San Diego affilliation was switched by force by the FCC from a VHF to a UHF station, so ABC made a deal with KGTV to flip to ABC at a time when KGTV's deal to carry NBC programming was expiring, and KGTV was happy enough to switch affilliations to a higher-rated network. KGTV has plans to broadcast it's daily news program, 10 News, in High Definition beginning April 2008.

Network affilliations in San Diego are rare. KFMB has been with CBS since day one. KGTV had NBC and then ABC. KNSD began carrying some of the network programs that the other three local stations didn't carry in the early 70s until it became ABC in 1973, then NBC in 1977. XETV had been ABC, then independent, carrying some of the network programs the other three didn't carry, then Fox, and now independent. KUSI was independent, then UPN, then they dropped UPN, the only time a San Diego station dropped a network affilliation. KSWB was independent, then WB for the entire span of the network, then CW, and coming in August, Fox. XDTV was launched in 1999 and picked up UPN until it folded into the CW, then My Network TV since.

Meanwhile, the CW is looking for a new home. The problem with the CW is that their programing in prime time doesn't appeal to an audience beyond females 18-34. What guy would watch "Gossip Girl" and reruns of "Reba?" XETV might not pick up the CW affilliation because of this, but if they do, and the CW picks up the sequel to "Beverly Hills, 90210", that show ironically will be seen on XETV. XETV as a Fox affilliate carried 90210 in the 90s.

Ion Network, the seventh broadcast network, never had a San Diego home. Their pale lineup of mostly reruns isn't going to get them one either.

I don't think that the CW would want to be placed on a subchannel.

Cox and Time Warner cable carry KTLA, the Los Angeles CW affilliate, and are prepared to remove the blackedout times when CW is broadcast on KTLA if the CW doesn't land on another San Diego station.

Some low powered UHF stations could be a candidate for CW affilliation. KBOP 43, a former Mi San Diego Spanish station operated by KNSD, could get the CW. So could KSDX 29, which broadcasts Spanish language programming.

My Network TV could be dropped by XDTV in retaliation for Fox's action to move its network affilliation away from XETV. XETV and XDTV are programmed by Bay City Television. XDTV is also a Mexican-licensed TV station, this one from Tecate.

Or, My Network TV could move to XETV, leaving the CW affilliation out in the cold, or the CW could be picked up by XDTV if it's not on XETV or KUSI.

Here's an interesting thought. XETV could just wait it out as an independent until network carriage rights for CBS or ABC are about to expire on KFMB and KGTV, and XETV could put in a bid to grab one of the two affilliations. XETV could get ABC back, or get CBS. They can't get NBC because it's on a network-owned station KNSD, owned by NBC.

In the meantime, who's going to get meaner?